Finding links between thoughts

[Tanz der Nacht]

Hi!

So I am using a digital voice recorder to record anything I see important, ranging from business to private, from rants to new business ideas.

Every finalized idea is one wma-file.

I wrote a program to sort the wma-files into folders. From time to time I listen to the wma-files, convert them to text(manually) and insert them into a mindmap with mindmanager, which I sort hierarchically by area and type in turn.

This works very well, no idea is being lost, when I am out of ideas for a special topic, I listen to what I said and can get started again.

What could a search system look like that finds links between thoughts(written in the mindmap and in the wma files) or in general gives me good search results even when the keyword I searched for is not present but a synonym of it or related topic(for instance flower should output entries containing orchid aswell, even if they contain orchid but not the very keyword flower).

I prefer something ready-made but small adjustments to a given system are fine aswell.

How would you approach this task?

[clango]

Hi!

I prefer something ready-made but small adjustments to a given system are fine aswell.

How would you approach this task?

The first idea coming out is to convert in next action what you catch. Then if you use an electronic task manager ( Toodledo and Ultimate To Do list) you should add in the note a lot of choosen key words or you could use tags. A common tag should be the link between the thoughts you are looking for

[Tanz der Nacht]

I don't understand what you mean.

[cwoodgold]

I don't understand what you mean.

I think what clango means is, that when you convert it to text, look at what you're typing and put in some extra words; for example, if you write something with the word "orchid" in it, put the word "flower" in there too as an extra word, so that later when you search for "flower" you'll find it.

I do something like that. I have a text file on the computer listing the paper files in my filing cabinet. When I put a paper file in, I add a line to the text file on the computer to name the file and tell me where it is, and I add some more words and phrases to the line, guessing things that I might search for when looking for that file.
For example, for a "passport" file, I might type in keywords such as "id", "identification", and "renewal date", so that later I can find it when searching for those phrases.

[Tanz der Nacht]

The goal is to find links I have never thought about. You need to think different.

[clango]

@cwoodgold

Thank you. This is exactly what I meant

[clango]

You need to think different.

Maybe! Unfortunately it is not in my list....now. Good luck my friend!